Financial announcement from the SCA, Inc.

As we reported last year, our organization is still suffering some of the effects of the recent economic down turn. Please take a moment to review the 2010 SCA, Inc. budget posted at http://www.sca.org/.

As you can see, the SCA is forecasting, roughly, to break-even for this budget cycle (2010). At this time, this is only a forecast, and will be monitored and modified as the year progresses.

For the year ending 2009, we project a net income of $31,174.64. Please bear in mind that all 2009 financial data has not been processed, so this remains a projection. This is a substantial turn-around from our 2008 loss of over $180,000. The corporate staff and directors worked diligently throughout the year to review and reduce all expenses, and eliminated anything not deemed “mission critical”. The directors would like to recognize and commend the outstanding efforts by the VP for Corporate Operations, Renee Signorotti, and the Corporate Treasurer, Mazelle Attiya. These two individuals worked tirelessly to control costs. They have our great thanks.

Moving forward into 2010, we will continue to work to minimize costs, and to provide value for our members.

It must be noted first and foremost- the projected break-even budget for 2010 is based on one critical change; membership rates will be increase by $2, effective July 1, 2010. This will be matched with a $2 increase in the NMS. We in no way want to discourage new participants from “trying us out”, however, the Board feels strongly that participating non members should also contribute to the organization.

In addition, this $2 increase will be reviewed in the following budget cycle (2011). The potential exists for additional incremental changes in the coming years, based on future increases in organizational operating costs. We have listened carefully to the comments of our membership. We believe that a smaller, regulated and controlled incremental increase is superior to one large increase.

We continue to review additional sources of funding with respect to the grants committee, and we are exploring alternative revenue sources.

The budget for 2010 continues the cost cutting measures noted below.

The elimination of one quarterly in-person meetings of the Board of Directors, the July meeting, which will be replaced by a conference call. Please note: The directors remain committed to outreach to the membership. The elimination of this meeting was a difficult choice as the directors and corporate staff is committed to public meetings, traveling across the Known World in order to meet the members and gain input from them.

The introduction of the online waivers, which will reduce postage and paper costs. We will continue to explore the potential expansion of the online interface to include changes in publication subscriptions. (ie: being able to add subscriptions on-line).

Looking forward, we see the potential for continued financial distress for the Society. In light of the 2008 loss and continued “close to the bone” financial situation, the directors and corporate staff continue to work through a variance analysis and budgetary options. Moving forward, we will proceed with our efforts to examine a variety of options to reduce costs, and increase our revenue. Please take a moment to review the list of ideas below and send us your comments and ideas. We understand that some of the options will be unpopular in areas of the Society. This should not be considered a complete list of all options, nor should any of these items be considered as a “done deal”. While we have no wish to unduly change the spirit of our shared activity, we feel strongly that at this time all options must be placed on the table, examined and reviewed.

Continued development of a grant program, specifically target at supporting our publications and A&S activities.

Adding new tiers of member sponsorship such as a Donor or Sponsor level.

Examining different membership participation options, with a short term “event pass” for new participants.

Increase our ability to fund some internal operations from sales of SCA related merchandise. (Via Cafe Press or other, similar sites. Individual kingdoms currently have gone in this direction. We are not looking to curtail kingdom activity.)

Raising membership rates. As mentioned we will review additional incremental increases to align expenses and revenues.

Fees for paperwork processing.

As ever, the Board of Directors and corporate staff relies on your input and ideas.

Send your comments to comments@sca.org. Please recall that this is a comment only address. All Directors all see the email from this comments address, however we do not offer individual responses.

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This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.